Ireland at Expo 2025
Osaka, Kansai, Japan | 13 April - 13 October 2025
About Expo
Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai is taking place from 13 April to 13 October 2025.
An expected 160 countries and international organisations will participate in Expo 2025. Over the course of six months, millions of people will visit Osaka to absorb and participate in diverse experiences from around the world.
The theme of Expo 2025 is ‘Designing Future Society for Our Lives’, with three sub-themes of saving lives, connecting lives and empowering lives. Through this theme, this promises to be a World Expo that inspires people by showcasing the best examples of collaboration, innovation and cooperation from around the world.
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Recruitment
Work at the Ireland House Pavilion in Osaka
Recruitment for Ireland House Pavilion staff begins in autumn 2024.
We are looking for individuals who are passionate about Ireland and Japan, with knowledge of the Japanese language, to join the team in 2025.
Please consider registering your interest to be notified when the campaign launches.
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Ireland at Expo 2025
Creativity Connects People
Participating in Expo 2025 is a unique opportunity to showcase Ireland to a global audience. It will raise awareness of Ireland’s attractiveness as a great place to live, work, study, visit, and do business.
Ireland’s theme for Expo 2025 is ‘Creativity Connects People’. Through this theme, we will show how imagination is central to all human progress and to empowering young and old to live full and productive lives.
Ireland House Pavilion
The primary purpose of our pavilion is to provide an environment in which our visitors can engage on a personal level with our exhibitions, displays and performances— and, most importantly, with our pavilion team.
A harmonious relationship between built and natural environment was key to the design of the Ireland House Pavilion. Located beside the main entrance to Expo and adjacent to the Grand Roof, it occupies a nodal position and acts as a ‘gateway’ for visitors to the entire Expo site. Government of Ireland architects from the Office of Public Works (OPW) designed the building, made up of three elliptical areas and a central interlocking space, to represent an abstracted triskele in three dimensions.
The exterior of the pavilion is clad in Irish-grown Douglas Fir timber and the surrounds will feature a sculpture conceptualised by Irish artist Joseph Walsh, set in a landscape designed by Japanese landscape architect Hiroyuki Tsujii.
Find out more about the Pavilion >>
At the Ireland House Pavilion
Exhibition
The Ireland House Pavilion design will bring visitors on a journey through the three ellipses of the pavilion which are being curated by the National Museum of Ireland. The first ellipse contextualises Ireland, geographically and as a place of creativity. The second shows geographical and cultural connections between Ireland and Japan. The third shows how creative collaboration generates understanding between peoples – in this case the peoples of Japan and Ireland but also as a universal concept – reflecting the theme Creativity Connects People.
The Expo Players
The Expo Players are Irish musicians chosen by the National Concert Hall for their musicianship and creativity, especially in re-interpreting traditional music forms.
The Expo Players will perform at various locations including the social spaces of the Ireland House Pavilion, outside the Pavilion, and spontaneously in other Expo events.
Creativity Connects
Developed by the National Museum of Ireland in collaboration with the National Concert Hall, musician and composer Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh, and filmmaker Marianne Keating, Creativity Connects invites our pavilion visitors to connect through a shared experience of spontaneous music, movement and image-making.
Creativity Connects will be a single, transportable collaborative creation of makers from a variety of backgrounds and disciplines, united by an overarching focus on time, connection and music.
Beyond the Ireland House Pavilion
Young Scientists
The BT Irish Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition is Ireland’s annual national science fair and competition for young people. It began in 1963 when two Irish physics researchers working in the US came across the concept of ‘Science Fairs’.
They decided that this type of hands-on science was something that Irish students would benefit from, by taking science outside the classroom and into the world beyond.
Ireland will bring five projects from the 2025 Young Scientist competition to Osaka for special science and technology related events – creating connections between young Irish and Japanese scientists.
TG4 Gradam Ceoil
The TG4 Gradam Ceoil awards were established in 1998 to recognise and honour all who have played a prominent part in supporting, nurturing and strengthening Irish traditional music.
Gradam Ceoil shines a light on the beauty, richness, depth and dynamism of our traditional music, and gives a public platform to performers who are making their mark on this ancient artform.
Ireland will bring a specially created event from this annual showcase of outstanding creativity in traditional Irish music to Japanese and international audiences to mark Expo 2025.
Halloween
Although Halloween is a major festival in Japan, the Irish origins of Halloween and the Bram Stoker connection are largely unknown.
The origins of Halloween can be found in the mists of pagan Ireland more than 2,000 years ago, a time when the ancient festival of Samhain was celebrated to mark the beginning of winter.
It was believed, according to legend, that at Halloween the veil between our world and the ‘Otherworld’ was at its thinnest, allowing spirits and demons to easily pass between the two.
Ireland will present a specially curated, flagship Halloween Season at Expo 2025, created in partnership with Macnas Halloween Parade 2023 Cnámha La Loba, Dublin City Council, the Bram Stoker Festival and Fáilte Ireland.